SAN RAFAEL, Calif.- A strong second-half shooting performance was not enough for the Fresno Pacific Sunbirds (2-7 overall, 0-3 PacWest) to overcome the Dominican Penguins (5-4 overall, 2-1 PacWest) in a 79-56 loss Saturday afternoon at the Conlan Center.

FPU fell into an early deficit as they were just 1-11 from three in the first half but made six threes in the second half. Still, it wasn't enough to overcome a bevy of turnovers and a slow start.

Dominican grabbed the early lead converting 6 FPU turnovers into 6 points, all in the point, and held an 11-8 advantage on the Sunbirds.

The Sunbirds received four points a piece from Darrin Person Jr., Marten Maide, and Isaac Peralta over the first twelve minutes, but trailed 16-12 at the third media timeout.

Dominican held the edge in the half as it had twelve more shots than Fresno Pacific because of 12 first half turnovers by the Sunbirds to put FPU in a 36-27 deficit at half.

The Sunbirds quickly cut the difference down to three on a couple of triples from Maide and Nate Kendricks to start the half.

Dominican gained its separation again with FPU cutting it to single digits on three occasions, but the Penguins pushed their advantage to 13 with just under 10 minutes to play.

Fresno Pacific continued to knock down second-half threes, but Dominican pulled away over the final 10 minutes.

Person Jr. and Kendricks each finished in double-figures for Fresno Pacific.

Fresno Pacific will close the road trip next weekend with a trip to Southern California. The Sunbirds will play Concordia-Irvine on Saturday the 17^th and then Point Loma on Monday the 19^th.

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